Intriguing
by SeazTheDay
Summary: Set in a future where only Claire and Sylar remain, a young woman is caught sneaking into an apparently retired Sylar's apartment. Season 4 spoiler ALERT. M for possible violence and sexual references. Not CB/GG. SArmians get advanced chapters on forum.
1. Chapter 1

She snuck through the living room, hardly daring to take a breath in case the serial killer - whose home she was invading - heard her. Stepping on a creaky bit of floor, she cursed herself, her job and her burgeoning curiosity about the resident of apartment 37G, known by most of the world as Sylar.

Making her way across the potential minefield of noisy floorboards and invisible debris, she aimed for what she assumed was the bathroom, her goal being to complete the easier part of her mission before confronting the more difficult and probably deadly aspect of her reason for being where she was. As she stepped over the dark shadow cast by some object of clothing or such, a gentle glowing caught her eye. The young woman bent down and tugged the book-shaped object out from beneath the half-filled glass of water that was resting on it. It was a book and a modern one at that, clearly due to the LED screen which flashed and swirled when she opened it to display what was apparently the last page to have been viewed. The piercing gaze which glared out at her set her heartbeat racing with fear. She analysed the face which lay on the page before her. The strong eyebrows and unkempt beard and hair framed a face which was both compelling and unsettling. She had seen this man before, in historical records mainly, but there weren't any pictures available to the public which allowed such precise detail to emerge. She stroked her finger across the screen, flicking to the left. The next page was filled with scrawled notes squeezed between columns of endless data. Scanning it, she realised that she was holding a databook filled with information on the person who was also the subject of her mission. Curious as to what it could tell her about the man she was always taught to fear, she began reading a paragraph titled 'Initial Psychological Profile by NB'. Engrossed, she sat without looking up on the nearest sofa, knocking a pile of old-style CDs to the floor with an echoing shatter.

Frozen, she cursed her clumsiness, until a deep voice from the adjacent room made her jump yet again. "I knew you were in here, but honestly, you're the worst spy I've ever had break into my apartment." The low rumble of a chuckle emphasised his assuredness. "Why are you reading my databook by the way? I only have one, and I recognised the glow from under the door when you turned it on."

Unsure as to whether her life was about to be ended, she resolved to die with her pride as intact as she could get it.

"You're an intriguing person Mr Gray. Surely you of all people can understand an unrelenting sense of curiosity. I was wrong to be here, yet I'm driven to try to understand the thoughts behind what the history books." Politely she reasoned with the voice, hoping the stories were true and that this murderer was retired. She stepped toward the room from which the voice was emanating from. Reaching the door she pushed it open, a look of sheepish regret plastered across her face as she looked in to find a most unexpected scene before her.

The same eyes from the image which had enraptured her earlier bore into hers with an expression of entertained irritation as their owner lounged practically naked on what appeared to be his bed, his lower body covered only by lightly tousled sheets.

She looked away, cheeks burning with a combination of embarrassment and... she didn't know WHAT emotions were churning through her. "Sorry." The word burst from her mouth as she buried her face in her arms, completely terrified and utterly mortified. The man chuckled again. It seemed he didn't want to kill her. For now.

"Curiosity you say?"

"Yes."

"Intriguing too?"

"Yes." She replied, hoping he might be persuaded to merely turn her in to the law.

From behind her, she heard him take a long breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling fast. She snuck a peek back at him, restricting her gaze to the smug grin on the man's face. It broadened and he raised an eyebrow tauntingly and gestured to the pile of fabric which he was resting on. "Well? Getting in?"

"Yes. I mean no. I mean... It's... NO!" Blushing again, she hid her eyes yet again, utterly disconcerted.

Her ears pricked up as the shuffle of moving sheets reached them. Tensing, she bit her lip, shifted uneasily and finally looked up in the direction of the body heat she felt at her side. Gabriel Gray stood there, wrapped in nothing but his bed sheets, arms outstretched in what seemed like surrender and a bemused expression spread over his lips and eyes. "Fine then. What would you like to talk about first?" He plodded down on the floor beside her and crossed his legs in a jovial, schoolboy-like fashion.

She was rendered speechless.


	2. Chapter 2

After what must've been hours of exhaustive questions and answering, the woman fell silent for a moment, then looked back at her companion, bewildered. "So are you really that egomaniacal enough to be able to talk about nothing but yourself for..." She checked the clock standing in the corner, "... three hours or is there another reason you were happy to answer all my questions without knowing a thing about who you're talking to?"

Sylar smiled with a playfully guilty grin as he shrugged his shoulders. "Frankly, it's been refreshing talking to someone who is neither a cringing fool nor a self assured 'agent' type. You were curious and so I decided to satiate you."

She shot him another odd look. "Is that it?" She was almost teasing him, confidence gained through the fact that she was still alive.

"Well. There's also the fact that I've been completely bored for years," he conceded, tilting his head sideways and looking her over curiously. "So? Tell me a bit about yourself. What's your name? How old are you? Where are you from?"

Regretful now of changing the subject towards herself, she cleared her throat. She supposed it was only fair to answer him after all he'd told her about himself.

"Well my name is Kyrain Ellins, I just turned 20 and I'm actually originally from Australia." she fiddled with her hair, turning it around her index finger distractedly as she spoke.

He nodded. "I recognized the accent. So what do you do for a living?"

"Well..." Now she hesitated, drawing a slight frown from Sylar. "I... I'm a... kind of ambassador for the Suresh Institute." She bit her lip in worry. Not many people with powers such as Sylar liked those who worked at the Suresh Institute, thinking them too much like the oppressive Company of the old days. In reality, the only similarity was when the Institute was forced to chime in and take action against the more dangerous superhumans. Otherwise, it was mainly just a scientific organisation dedicated to the study and preservation of superhumans in general. Of course, nobody believed that.

As she had feared, his expression firmed, though she wasn't completely sure exactly what he was thinking.

He looked down at himself, as if finally noticing his state of undress. "I should probably put something more decent on." His tone of voice was unreadable as he stood and strode back to his bedroom, leaving Kyrain wondering if she had just signed her own death warrant. She glanced at the emergency exit, half considering fleeing.

"You can leave if you want, but you'll never get to hear about the time I saved Micah Sanders' life." came the voice from the other room.

Micah Sanders? Now THAT was a surprise. Everyone had heard of Mr Sanders before. He was the pioneer of pretty much every piece of modern technology that existed. And he had powers too. Why would Sylar SAVE him?

Plus, he knew her name now and would probably be able to track her easily if she tried to make a run for it. She decided she'd stay. For now.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks to SammPaglia for reminding me that I actually should finish this. I have some time off Uni to work on this, so if anyone's still here, look out! I'm going to be doing some serious work on this!**

* * *

Gabriel - or Sylar as he inevitably went by nowadays - stared at the doorway. He had finished getting dressed a while ago, but he was finding it difficult to leave, to see if that mysterious girl had run away or if she had stayed. Surely she was terrified of him. Most people were and that led to an incredibly low number of visitors and acquaintances. Those that were cocky enough to not fear him were usually utter morons anyway and he barely wasted his time on shapeshifting and pretending to be somebody else just to fit in. He had been through the identity crisis that went with that kind of thinking already and certainly wasn't going to try that again.

The ironic thing was, he really was retired from all the killing. Sure, he fought the urge to take powers still, or understand more of how people's minds worked, but the whole 'kill, run, kill, run' thing got tiring after a few hundred years. He had gone 'good' for a decent time earlier in his life. It had felt good, and he had made friends for once, instead of enemies, but once Peter was no longer around to help him control himself, he had given in and went back to killing for fun. The stigma of those dark, lost years still clung to him even after a good three dozen years without a single kill. He hadn't even assaulted anyone.

He supposed the thing that had most interested Sylar about this Kyrain woman was that she only seemed to half-believe the rumours that he still murdered people. The fact that she amused him with her combination of cringing and stubborn remarks was also a factor, he surmised. If he allowed himself to truly be honest with himself, he would have to admit that he found her slightly attractive too. The first thing he noticed about her was the ringlets of gold that fell across her face and shoulders as she rushed to look away. He liked blondes, though he couldn't stand the cliché 'dumb' ones. After deciding to amuse himself with the impostor, he had brought her into his living room and was able to look over the rest of her features as half his mind digested her questions and articulated the relevant answers for her. She had deep blue eyes in which even the casual observer could see a combination of fierce intelligence and mulish stubbornness. The light freckles which dotted her small, pert nose hinted at time spent in the sun, though her clearly pale skin proved she wasn't able to do so too often. She probably burnt very easily. The girl was slightly shorter than average too, which contrasted with his own height.  
Reaching out to the doorknob, he surmised that if his companion had left, he would not track her down. Perhaps she would return of her own free will after she had time to realise he meant her no harm, but to alienate the first interesting visitor he had had in years would be stupid. Luckily, he had no such reason for concern. That same mulish expression stared back at him as he strolled back to the sofa and sat.  
"So please. Why are you REALLY here?" he tilted his head toward her, "Don't worry. I won't bite." He bit back a grin as he resisted the urge to add the word 'hard'. She explained.

Over the years since the knowledge of superhumans and their abilities went public, a combination of government laws and social morals had come down hard on even the weakest of those with powers. Over much more time, those laws had become like religious dogma and were no longer questioned or even altered for fairness. They were just followed blindly.  
At first, the rules had made sense, as they controlled the abuse of powers and restricted how many new superhumans were born so that the dangerous ones were easier to keep control of. But those rules forbidding pregnancies between normal humans and superhumans or restricting the number of children allowed to a superhuman couple to just one had led to a constantly thinning gene pool. What was once a booming group of evolutionary wonders was now stricken with problems such as incest, disease and infertility. The government would not allow any of the old laws to be changed, so the Suresh Institute had come up with a few theories on how to improve the health of the superhuman race. One of those was to use the untainted DNA of the two immortals - Claire and Sylar - to attempt to strengthen the DNA of all new superhuman babies.

The first problem was, they needed a sample of DNA to see if it might work and then they needed the cooperation of at least one, but preferably both candidates to carry out trials. The main problem was, that kind of tampering with DNA was highly illegal and therefore highly difficult to carry out in a well known place like the Suresh Institute. Still, it didn't hurt to investigate their best option for repairing the damage.

As an experienced mediator between scientists and superhumans at the Institute, Kyrain had been chosen to be the one to approach Sylar for his cooperation with the scheme. If possible, she was to gain a sample of DNA on the sly before returning to make her petition on behalf of the research, but obviously it hadn't worked out that way.

_ This thing down here. Click it please? Or I'll set my SArmy buddies on you. (kidding, kidding)_


	4. Chapter 4

Interested, but unsure as to whether the theory would ever truly work, Sylar heard her out. She seemed to truly be concerned with the plight of the superhumans, but didn't appear to fully believe it would work either. He suspected that since her earlier protest of simple curiosity was the main reason she agreed to come on this mission and not any real sense of hope for the mission.  
His mouth drew into a slight frown. "Well I'm in, but I highly doubt you'd get Claire to agree. After years of running from the Company, do you really think she'd ever trust her wellbeing to a bunch of scientists armed to the teeth with needles and machinery?" Kyrain's face had brightened when he had pledged his support, but fell now as she realised that he was right.  
"Besides, she still hates me. Even after all these years, she's never forgiven me for what I did to her and her family. Not even Pete could get her to change her mind," he added, mouth twitching as he mentioned his past misdeeds.  
I killed her father. And her grandfather now that I think about it, he thought regretfully. He hadn't realised it at the time, but each kill had torn at his psyche until he had only a few shreds of humanity left. Time among other things had helped the healing process, but some injuries could never fully recover without serious help. He often looked back on that time as his turning point, despite his regressions soon after.  
After killing Arthur, he had learnt that the man had been holding a mystical 'light' which nobody knew much about. He had never told anyone, but as Arthur's killer, he had inherited that light and kept it buried until it emerged and helped turn him away from his path of darkness and pain.  
Now, he called it forward and allowed it to bathe the room in it's comfort, his negative emotions receding. His companion didn't see it, he knew, but she surely felt it. She visibly seemed to relax as she breathed in deeply, unaware that the gentle tendrils darted down her nostrils and lit up her body from within. Sylar's eyes widened. That wasn't expected. As quickly as the light had flared, it died down again as he wondered what had just happened. All he had meant to do was fight the dark tendencies that had been flaring up within him and now... what?

Reassured by his swift agreement to help the Institute but unaware of all that had just occurred, Kyrain was eager to continue the most intriguing conversation of her life. "So can you show me some of your powers?" she asked, smiling and pleased that the apparent friendship that had been forming was not destroyed now that he knew everything.  
After a brief hesitation, he smiled back. It was not a cruel smile, or even a taunting one like earlier. Pretending to groan at the effort of standing up, he looked down at the girl on his sofa and lifted his hand, palm upwards and curled. In it, blue lightning crackled and sparked, shocking his curious onlooker.  
"Wow," she breathed as he brought his hands together and pulled at the ball of electricity until it stretched out into a long, thin strand. She stood up too and lay her hand cautiously on his arm, her relief showing when it did not shock her. Clearly, she hadn't actually seen many abilities. It figured; people like the Haitian of his early years were often employed in places like the Institute in addition to ability-suppressing drugs or else those places would have gone under as soon as they imprisoned their first dangerous superhuman.  
"I wish I could have a power like electricity..." she continued, eyes blazing with amazement.

As soon as she had uttered those words, the sparks vanished from Sylar's experienced fingers and reappeared in Kyrain's. Gasping in shock, the electricity shot through her body and zipped around, lifting her hair through the static till it stood on end.  
Confused, Sylar tried to summon his own electricity again to no avail. "You... you took my power?" he murmured as the culprit tried desperately to control the sparks shimmering off her skin. "I... I don't. I'm just normal. I don't have a power! It's yours! I'm sorry!" she stammered as she reached out and gripped his wrists tightly. He flinched in pain as the sparks jumped onto his skin and stung, healing again instantly. "Take it! I'm sorry, have it back!" she cried the energy continued to flow without control. As suddenly as it had appeared, it left her and she crumpled on the floor, exhausted by the effort it had taken to not super-shock everything in the entire apartment.  
Released from her grip, Sylar too found himself momentarily wearied, though his fatigue seemed more like relief than true loss of energy. Glancing at his hands again, he tried to summon sparks to dance on his fingertips. They obeyed as if they had never left him.

Breathing hard, Kyrain stared up at the man towering above her and licked her suddenly dry lips. "What. Just. Happened?"


End file.
